A review of prayer and school violence

In response to "The Journal's" Carol Williams OpEd "Prayer in Private Schools" of Jan. 6, all I can do is proclaim that there are two kinds of lies: lies and damned lies.

The writer tried to establish the theory that there is no correlation between the U.S. Supreme Court's June 25, 1962, decision to ban prayer in public schools and the existence of a moral and just American society.

Thank God! … There is such a thing as truth in statistics.

One can establish with minimal research on Wikipedia the "List of school shootings in the United States" that Williams' OpEd is unadulterated rubbish.

During the 1950s and 1960s, there were 16 and 17 school-related shootings in the U.S., respectively. None of these shootings occurred at Christ-centered schools (Catholic or Protestant).

During the 1970s and 1980s, there were 30 and 41 shootings, respectively. Seven of these occurred at Christian schools.

From 1990 through 2009, there were 124 shootings. One of these occurred at a Christian school.

From 2010 through 2018, there were 173 shootings. Two of these occurred at Christian schools.

In other words, since the 1962 landmark decision, there have been 383 school shootings with greater than 97 percent occurring at public schools.

Abraham Lincoln once posited "The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next."

Sadly, we as a nation did not heed Lincoln's words. We have evolved towards a less moral and less just society.